Tuesday morning and Joni and myself are up early to meet Jairo. Although Monday was good, today promises to be particularly special as this will be my first introduction to Aguablanca itself. Having been shaken by slums in the past, most notably in Bombay, Rawpindi and particularly Medan in Sumatra, I feel a degree of nervous trepidation, exaggerated by the violent reputation that proceeds this area of the city.
What first strikes you about Aguablanca is how clean and organised it appears on the surface, real slums arent supposed to look like this, are they? Whilst the government have designated this area a marginal zone beyond local authority control, the official boundary between this side of Aguablanca and the adjacent suburb of Cali is asthetically almost indistinguishable, little more than a layer of decorative plaster.
Having arrived early, Joni and myself pop into a local shop for a bite to eat and we talk about first impressions. It seems Joni also struggled with the idea that Aguablanca could fit neatly into the common perception of a slum, he even added a UNESCO definition into his thesis as clarification. Unlike the common perception, the houses are not the standard tarpaulin covered wooden shacks but permanent brick structures, there is electricity and drainage and the roads whilst potholed are no worse than the rest of the city. What makes Aguablanca slumlike is inevitably the total absence of security, even the taxi driver had warned us not to venture any deeper into the neighbourhood(Comuna)than our present location.
We met Snr Jairo Anzulo (Jefe del Nucleo for communa 13) at his office in the local public school. He welcomed us warmly, remembering Joni from his own period of research and listened attentively as I described my plans and how they were designed to complement Jonis work. Jairo casts an eye over the questionnaires and asks a couple of questions of his own. He then informs us that there is a meeting this Friday of all the school representatives in his communa and that it would be a good idea to present the research plan to them directly. This is an excellent idea, however it means Im gonna have to stand up in front of 40+ people and describe school climate, in Spanish. We thank Jairo for his time and cooperation, I take a couple of pictures of the school and were back on the street.
The rest of the day is spent reading about Philanthropy, preparing the mini-research questionnaire and the document framework. On Tuesday night I moved house. Whilst Joni and Letycia have been perfect hosts Im not one to outstay my welcome.
Im strangely proud of the fact that I can fit almost all of my worldly possessions into a couple of large suitcases, consequently putting an even smaller proportion into my rucksack takes no time at all. Soon, Im across town at the Torres Plazuelas at junction of Roosevelt and 39th Street. Sounds very NY glam but in actual fact, the space is dominated by a huge Mickey D.
Lucia looked at me aghast as I entered the flat, where on earth are all your clothes she asked. I presumed she was referring to the size of my rucksack, as opposed to some x-ray vision thing. I explained that I preferred to travel light and recounted one long trip into the mountains of Pakistan where I was obliged to wear the same pair of underpants for an unholy period of time. As soon as I’d said it I knew that as ice breakers go, that probably wasnt the best, particularly for a lady as house proud as Lucia (see photo). So rather than dig a deeper hole, I make my excuses and turned in.